Three weeks ago, we launched a Kickstarter page for our project, "Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter." With a week to go, we have reached, as of this writing, just over $70,000 dollars of our $200,000 goal, putting us at 35% funded. If we stay at our current rate, we won't get funded.

So what did we do wrong?
There are three primary points (based on feedback from the internets), that we screwed up on. First, I lack the instant name recognition that Tim Schafer or Brian Fargo has, and we weren't clear of the experience of the other team members. Next, our video was not exciting enough and the quality wasn't up to the standard it should have been. Lastly, we were too vague about the details of the project, lacked assets to show, and didn't properly differentiate our concept from other shooters on the market today. Oh, and the name SUCKED.

So what are we doing about it?
Kickstarter is a crazy ride; you have your good days and your bad days. It would be easy to close our eyes, hope for the best, and slink away if we didn't make it. But that's not how we roll. We have redoubled our efforts over the past week, partnering with a local video production company to make what we hope is a kick-ass video. We commissioned AWESOME concept art from Charles Guan, and partnered with actor Matt Corboy and composer Rich Douglas to help promote the project. And we named the damn thing, holding a fan concept to create a logo splash image. TAKEDOWN is born.

Advertisement

Tonight is the night!
Tonight, we will launch a completely "reloaded" Kickstarter page with more detailed information on TAKEDOWN and the team, a crazy new video, and new concept art. Much of this content has been vetted or advised on by our community, which is how we will work on the game as well.

Will we be successful? Time will tell. We'll write a postmortem for other game developers to learn from, so no matter what we hope to make the landscape better for others. But no one will be able to say we gave up.